


Like the Phoenix

by Not_enough_hours



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-23
Updated: 2018-06-11
Packaged: 2018-12-05 21:26:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11586498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Not_enough_hours/pseuds/Not_enough_hours
Summary: Earth is like the phoenix burning itself on a pyre and rising from the ashes refreshed and renewed. Will our heroes rise with it? or will they be caught in the flames?. An Alternate Season 5...canon compliant-ish except I ignore “six years later” (and sneakily Lexa’s alive)Clarke and Madi must battle to stay alive on the surface of a world that’s gone even more ‘Mad Max’ than before. While those in the bunker must come to terms with what makes a family. Plus? Who knew getting down would be way harder than getting up?





	1. Chapter 1 - Grief is Universal.

**Author's Note:**

> Ok here we go! Firstly I’m sorry for those of you following The Long Road it’s not dead it’s just in a coma...a deep deep coma. I haven’t pulled the plug but its touch and go. 
> 
> I was inspired by season 4 so I had to write this. I like the idea of Madi..and uh I might have gone a tad kid crazy..um yeah you’ll see. Like always I was frustrated by the show throwing the baby out with the bath water. Seriously why spend 3 seasons creating all this amazing world and culture only to burn it down to ground without exploring it in any depth? So I'll fix it. Obviously. Gotta be honest my update schedule will be lame.
> 
> P.S sorry for the angsty start.

Praimfaya whilst catastrophic burnt hot, bright and fast. The original shock wave passed in seconds like a blazing tsunami igniting a burning inferno in its wake. Primfiya was the ignition, the earth was the fuel, one hundred year old forests stuck and caught going up in a wall of orange and red flame.

 

Bellamy looked down at the earth and watched it burn. On the trip up, after he’d made the call to leave, he’d told himself that things might be alright, just maybe, they might be. Clarke was literally one of the smartest people he knew. If anyone could survive Praimfaya it would be her. But now, now as he watched the world burn he felt his hope burn with it. No way someone on the outside could survive that, even with Nightblood...and even if she made it back to Becca’s bunker it wasn’t prepped, it wasn’t ready, they had take most of the supplies with them.  Hell, looking at it from this perspective- the blue planet swallowed by vivid orange, he no longer even felt confident that the New Dawn*bunker* was enough let alone becca’s.

 

Octavia.

 

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath pushing the thoughts of his sister aside. He couldn’t afford to fall apart, not now. Even if all he felt like doing was punching a wall and getting absolutely shit faced. Clarke had been so serious earlier when she’d approached him. He had to use his head now, despite how his cursed big heart was breaking because she’d asked him too because it’s what she’d want him to do and because she wasn’t here to do it herself. So he’d do it like she’d do it -head over heart, he’d hold their people together even if there was only the six of them.

 

He took one more breath.

 

“Right guys let’s get to it! Monty? Are you up to running through what we’ll need to do to get that algae farm set up? Raven I assume you’re good to run a systems check...

 

* * *

 

 

**One Year Later**

 

Octavia strode through the doors. Her Commanders jacket flaring our behind her in a swirl.

 

“Well? What’ve we got? Is it them? Tell me it’s them”

 

“We received a faint signal earlier.” Replied the man manning the comms station and the brunette could hear the controlled excitement behind the words causing her to work hard to keep her own at bay.

 

“We managed to clean it up and connect but the signal was faint and garbled... But it was them! I know it was them! I mean who else would it be?....It sounded like Reyes to me but I couldn’t be sure…”

 

The brunette cut off his excited ramble “...I’m gonna assume you tried to contact them?”

 

“Yes Commander... but we got no response..” He said slightly deflated. A year on and it still sometime startled her to hear Skaikru refer to her by her title.

 

“You lost the signal?”  she asked

“No I don’t think so…” The man, Steve if she remembered correctly shrugged. She was about to ask another question when the radio squarked brokenly to life.

 

“T---is h- r--ng- -ver. I Rep-at.This i- he- Ri-ng”

 

“That’s Raven! It’s Raven!” Octavia exclaimed in what was probably a shade off a squeal. It wasn’t exactly in keeping with her standard stoic gona appearance and it wasn’t particularly commandery, but it was RAVEN. After over a year it was Raven.

 

“Can you make it any clearer? I can’t make out what she’s saying.”

 

Steve frowned “We’ve done all we can”

 

Octavia growled she glanced sideways at Kane“Keep trying. You”  pointing at the guard on the door. “Go get Abby, bring her here imedia…”

 

“This is the Ring. I Repeat this is the Ring do you copy? Over.”

 

The brunette stopped mid sentence. The signal was now crystal clear, the disembodied voice could have been standing next to her and it was no longer Raven..

 

“Bell” She breathed his name like a prayer.

 

“This is..” He started his message again.

 

“What are you doing? Repy!? Better yet give it here!” Wasting no more time Octavia strode over whipping the receiver off the startled Steve.

 

“Bell? Bell?! This is O can you hear me? Over.”

 

She waited for what felt like hours but was really probably only seconds and then

 

“Oh O! O! You’re alive!” he laughed wetly “Oh man! Thank god I was so worried I was going outta my mind. We’ve been trying to make contact since we got up here! Raven said it was probably the radiation interfering with the signal but seeing the state of the earth from up here it was hard not to think worst”

 

There was a knock on the door behind her and Abby complete with baby Jake on her hip and Lexa at her side slid silently through the door. The brunette gave a brief nod to them before turning her attention back to the receiver. She marvelled at the thought of her friends actually making it back to space.

 

“I’m so glad you’re alright too Bell! Raven if you’re listening you’re a genius!”  and she laughed as she release a years worth of worry “God I can’t believe you crazy freaks managed to get into space AGAIN. That you’re all up there just floating around while the earth burns!”

 

She expected a laugh or a smile to his voice. She could always tell when he was smirking it was like the sixth sense of a little sister. Except he didn’t in fact when he spoke he sounded the opposite and Octavia felt her heart clench before he’d even finished speaking.

 

“Uh ..Not all of us O’...not all of us…..Who’s in the room is ...is Abby there?”

 

Behind her she heard Abby suck in a sharp breath for she knew as well as the young Commander what was coming. Kane was already crossing the room, his urgent strides taking him to abby’s side in moments.

 

Softly reluctantly she clicked the receiver

 

“Yeah Bell she is”

 

He was quiet for a beat and Octavia imagined him gathering himself, steeling himself she could almost perfectly imagine him clenching his jaw and squaring his shoulders.

 

“Abby. Abby I’m sorry I’m so so sorry…” Octavia watched the woman shake her head in denial clutching Jake closer.

 

“She saved us. Clarke saved us again.”

 

There was a ringing silence after his declaration as they all processed the statement and as the silence pressed on with no indication that Bellamy would add anything further, Octavia felt compelled to ask... because as she eyed Abby frantically shake her head and a colourless Lexa standing beside her she knew if it had been Lincoln she’d want to know. So she asked.

 

“How Bell? How’d she uh…” He voice sounded rough and gravelly

 

There was a deep breath like he was trying to figure out what to say before he continued “The ships comms link was busted. We had to send a signal from the tower to the Ring or we’d get there and then be dead. We were all running out of time there was so much to get done. We w-we just had no time.. Monty was hurt...I ...I had to help him. So she went alone she knew the time frame...But something must have gone wrong and whatever happened she chose to see it through... chose to save us.”

 

Abby suddenly marched over and snatched the receiver out of her hand simultaneously jostling baby Jake awake.

 

“What are you saying Bellamy?” Her voice we shrill.

 

Now it was Bell’s turn to make a pained noise

 

“You know what I’m saying Abby”

 

This close Octavia could see the panting breaths and the white knuckled grip of Doctor’s distress “Are you saying you LEFT her!...” At his mother’s shrill shout Jake started to fuss, screwing up his tiny face.

 

“Abby..”

 

“Abby….” Kane echoed as he gently tried to ease his son from Abby’s overly tight clutch but she shook him off while continuing to focus on the receiver in her hand.

 

“You promised me! You said you’d take care of each other…’Yes Ma’am you said! You Said!”

 

Octavia wanted to defend her brother, Abby was being unfair but she also painfully familiar with grief and the anger it brought so she let it go.

 

“I did what Clarke taught me to do Abby, lead with my head and not my heart.” and now it was the ex-Commanders turn to make a strangled noise and Octavia watched the other brunette grope for a chair before sitting heavily.

 

Bellamy continued voice rough “If we’d waited it would have been all eight of us instead of one. You KNOW Clarke would never have chosen that... whether right or wrong Clarke always always chose to put her people -US..our survival first….”

 

The radio clicked off and in the silence that followed Jake finally let loose a thin reedy cry. The sound was pitiful and mournful and once again Kane tried to take the boy from Abby.

 

“No no no...let me have him let me keep him..” she muttered as she thrust the radio receiver into his hands instead in order to hold the babe with both hands. She began to rock him from side to side in an attempt to calm him but it was too late and he continued to wail.

 

“ I uh...I’m sorry again..” Bellamy said again awkwardly, sounding miserable and Octavia realise they’d left him hanging for a response.

 

Now it was Kane’s turn to bring the receiver to his lips.

 

“It’s ok son. We know you kids would do anything for each other. We know you would have done everything you possibly could. Thankyou for telling us”

 

“Sir you’ve got nothing to thank me for yo...wait is that a baby?” Bellamy broke off confused, he could obviously hear baby Jake’s crying in the background. The little guy’s wailing continued but he sounded like he was beginning to calm now that he had Abby’s attention.

 

Kane gave a sad chuckle. “Yes that’s Baby Jake. Uh Abby and I had a son” He said with obvious pride. It was funny Octavia had notice that most of the Arker adults referred the newest Jake as “Baby” Jake as if the ghost of Senior Jake was still such a solid presence that they had to differentiate between the two just incase someone got confused as to which Jake they were referring to. It reinforced to the young Commander that despite the fact that she’d personally never known him, Jake Griffin had been a much loved influential member of the Alpha Station community. She wondered how much Clarke took after him...or had taken after him that is.

 

“ It turns out she was pregnant before we entered the bunker…he’s five months old” Kane said somewhat sheepishly and he hurried on to further explain “Uh  We do have a strict no population growth policy, as the bunker just cannot sustain more mouths... but anyone who was already pregnant was allowed to keep their child” Octavia saw the moment it occurred to him just which family he was having this conversation with, his eyes suddenly widened and cut to her briefly before darting away.

 

Bellamy, if he cared was magnanimous about it.

 

“That’s really great Sir! Congratulation on the little one then. I hope one day I can meet him”

 

“ You will. I’m positive of it” Kane replied with conviction looking towards his son who was now quiet in his mother’s desperate grip. There was a lull before they heard Bellamy start to speak again.

 

“I…” they heard him click off the receiver before saying anything.

 

“I ..I’m” it clicked off again Octavia frowned he literally just told them that Clarke was dead what could possibly be more intimidating to say than that?

 

“ Uh I’ I’m  going to be a father too…”


	2. Burnt to Ashes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi Again so yes I'm back ish (fyi I've also updated my other season 3 story The Long Road check it out :) ) Full disclaimer I have not watched any of season 5 (I'm waiting till I can binge the full season) This fic is therefore obviously divergent from the end of season 4. I've made Madi younger in this as it just worked better for me. No Lexa yet but have faith she'll be back next chapter I know season 5 Lexa fics are in short supply.
> 
> Finally I literally just finished this and I've not edited/checked apologies in the end half feels rushed.

She was starving. Like really starving. She hadn’t eaten in DAYS. Clarke was no stranger to hunger. On the Ark it was a lingering shadow, with strict rationing they never went without but that’s not to say they always had enough either and she knew she’d been better off on Alpha than most. She’d also faced off with hunger again on her self imposed exile in the wilderness. Turns out hunger was a powerful motivator and a brutal teacher when it came to learning to hunt. She could now with razor sharp clarity see the difference between hunger and starvation.

 

After she’d made it back to Becca’s Bunker all she remembers for a long time was fire and pain. Somehow through supreme effort of will she managed to tear the radiation suit off and crawl to the remaining provisions before she fully succumbed to the effects of radiation sickness. She doesn’t like to look back on it  but sometimes she still has nightmares where she wakes screaming out her remembered agony. It was tearing, rupturing skin, roiling sickness and unrelenting darkness as even her eyes clouded over with sores. It was this darkness combined with the silence of being the only human left alive that nearly had Clarke losing her mind. There was a certain level of black irony that it was her previous experience in solitary confinement that helped her cope in these pain filled moments of sensory deprivation. 

 

Gradually though she began to heal. First she began to tolerate small bits of food. Then as her strength returned so to did her body begin to mend. The tears and a sores closed and mostly left behind clean fresh skin although the worst of her hurts left pink scars that she hoped would continue to fade ...but if they didn’t she’d already decided she’d wear them proudly like war paint. See? They said. See how I survived? Her eyes were another matter she was less proud more worried about those. Gradually the darkness faded and at first things were blurry but slowly even that fixed itself but they seemed to remain light sensitive. Often she left the lights off in the bunker.

 

Then began monotony. The bunker was small. Bigger than her cell on the ark, sure. However now she’d had tasted the wider world it was *SMALL*. The death wall of flame had passed she was sure but the radiation would still be critical. While she knew she didn’t have enough food or water to last five years in fact she’d be lucky if she had enough to last five months, she wasn’t keen to put herself through the burn of radiation again so soon. 

 

So she was back stuck in her very own ‘ground’box

 

She tried the radio daily, sometime twice a day and sometime she’s embarrassed to remember exactly how many times she tried it. Over and over she tried but she was only ever greeted with the sound of her own voice.

 

She remembered watching a movie with her Dad before life went wrong. It was called Cast Away where the guy was trapped on an island by himself and ended up talking to a ball with a face. She’d actually found a ball, it looked like one of those branded stress balls and just for  the absurdity of it she drew a face on it and began talking it. 

 

It didn’t help.

 

A little over five months of this madness inducing state and she’d essentially run out of food. She’d left herself just enough to hopefully explore and find some outside source. What outside source that wouldn’t be totally irradiated she didn’t know..

 

Which brought her to now….a starving now. Becca’s island had been totalled the trees burnt and rock exposed. There was little hope of resupply there. It had then taken her some additional days to build a watertight vessel to cross back to the mainland.

 

Now she was here she was amazed. Really the world was better off than she’d feared. Yeah the world was burnt but it wasn’t dead. The “death wave” had clearly been like a fast moving grass fire.Things were burnt but only on the surface. Clarke prodded a tree, it felt solid and when she pulled back the burnt bark she could see it lived underneath. It made her smile what felt like her first smile in eternity. Hopefully it would grow fresh shoots and be green again in no time. Hopefully. If the radiation didn’t kill it that is.

 

Despite her elation at this it was overshadow by the pounding of her head it seemed to pound to the rhythm of foodfoodfoodfoodfood. She was taking a break from her trek toward what she hoped was Polis, it was hard to judge as the landscape no longer looked the same. She sat on a rocky out crop and glared at its burnt surface. She need food and water, She couldn’t eat burnt bark...and if radiation was killing fish and people before the fire what hope did she have of any edible animal surviving now?

 

Just as she thought this she saw something scurry across the surface...it was soon followed by another and then another. Ants. Not little ants either not like the tiny ones she’d seen on the old flickery documentary up on the Ark. No these were roughly the size of a Chiwawa.

 

Clarke’s smile was feral and hungry. Poor creepy crawlies didn’t stand a chance.

 

She was halfway through her third ant when she heard it. At first she thought it was just her mind playing tricks on her. She turned to Stress-ball-Wilson and told him to “Shut it”. Wilson the asshole just glared back at her and wisely didn’t say anything.

 

She was about to go back to her ant...really it wasn’t that bad once you got pass the crunchy outside to the flesh inside. Kinda like a land lobster. When she heard it again. Someone was crying! Clarke stood up and cocked her head trying to hear it again. Silence. She ran a shaky hand through her hair telling herself it was ok, it was the wind, she’ better get used to Stress-ball-Wilson because that was all the company she was getting until bunker got out. She was about to sit back down when she heard it a third time. Not hesitating this time she ran into the ashy remains of the forest in the direction the sound came from. She pause again listening for it..nothing she tried shouting but it felt like the wind just picked it up and carried her voice away. With no other choice she slowed her pace and kept shouting and walking.

 

Suddenly she heard a little voice.

 

“Nnonnntu! Noonntuuuu!”

 

Clarke froze as she listened. It was a child’s voice! A little kid. it was calling for its father. Clarke winced its Dad was pretty much definitely dead. Or maybe not? She assumed it was a nightblood...maybe nightblood was genetic? Her thoughts tumble over themselves she wasn’t alone! Wait would she need to defend herself? She slowed but shrugged it off she’d cross that bridge when she got to it and with that she set off in the direction of the little voice calling as she went.

 

She hadn’t really gone that much further when the kid stopped calling back. Pausing she scanned the area.

 

She started badly when she noticed two tiny eyes peeking out from behind a tree. As soon as the little eyes saw that she saw though they quickly darted away back into the chard forrest..

 

“Heiya?” Called Clarke gently making no attempt to scurry after them. She was met by silence. Clarke frantically dredged up her rusty rudimentary trig.

 

“Hei? Hei ai laik Klark…” Still she was met with silence. Clarke was reasonably sure the kid was still there she would have heard if they’d run in the forest

 

“I won’t hurt you...I can help…”

 

Still nothing. Clarke decided to change tacks. After glancing around she spied a small clearing she hastily found a comfortable place to sit.

 

“Are you hungry? I bet you are...You can have some of my food. We can share.”

 

Folding her legs under her she began unpacking her hastily grabbed pack. Pulling out the last of her Ant, she made a production of cutting up some and taking a bite, making loud satisfied noises as she ate.

 

All of a sudden a little bundle of furs came barreling back out of the forrest straight into the clearing pausing only once she got a few feet from where Clarke sat..

 

The girl was tiny. Granted Clarke had had fairly limited exposure to kids, what with the Arks one child policy.. but she’d help her Mom in the Clinic enough that she could gauge that this kid was both very young and malnourished.

 

“Ai!” said the girl her bottom lip trembling and making the universal child gesture of  “grabby hands”

 

Clarkes heart clenched at the sight and she tried to smile encouragingly at the girl

 

“Yes for you too…come on then” 

 

The girl shifted her weight from foot to foot she looked back to the forest her lip trembling more. Clarke remembered she probably didn’t speak english. She tried again.

 

“sha gon yu…kom hir” she made a little “come here” gesture with her hand.

 

The little girl scrunched up her eyes before darting forward plopping down by Clarke and with one last glance at the blonde she grabbed a hunk of ant. The child attempted shove the whole thing in her mouth giving a little choking noise as that failed. The ant while broken up still had parts of it shell on and the child struggled to remove it, not quite managing the coordination require to do so and in her hunger resorted to just chewing on the hard shell and sucking the flesh off.

 

Clarke silently picked up the second last hunk and began stripping the shell off the flesh and breaking it into smaller pieces for the girl, studying her as she did. As she’d observed before the girl was small, close up Clarke put her age at between three and five. Surely too young to have survived on her own? However if she did have someone they were not taking care of her well. She was filthy, the furs she wore were torn, her hair was a birdnest of tangles once upon a time it contained braids but they’d been left untended and were well on their way to becoming dreadlocks. Clarke could also see that her hands and knees were scrapped as if she’d had a tumble. Surely any adult would have taken care most, if not all of these things?. Perhaps then she was being looked after by an older sibling? The blonde let the little girl eat. Once the last of the small pieces Clarke had prepared were gone she decided to try talking again.

 

“Ai laik Klark” She said gesturing to herself. The girl just looked back at her with large eyes. When is seemed she was going to get no response Clarke pulled out her water flask and offered it to the girl who accepted it easily but spilled most of it. Once finished to looked back at Clarke before saying

 

“Nomon? wer ste ai Nomon!” 

 

Clarke’s heart plummeted. Her Mom. The kid wanted her Mom. First her Dad now her Mom. They were both probably dead. Still the blonde was sure someone had to have been helping the child survive, by her count it had been nearly six months since Primfaya and while she knew the Grounders raised their kids strong and self sufficient... a four year old managing on their own this long was pushing it. Maybe her parents were hurt and that's why she was in such poor condition?

 

_ “ I’m sorry. I don’t know where your Mom is? Can you show me? Where did you come from?”  _ Clarke winced her trig was poor good thing the child was small she probably sounded like she was baby talking.

 

The little brunette suddenly nodded and jumped up grabbing Clarkes hand. The blonde had to stop herself from flinching it had been so long since she’d had any sort of human contact. The little munchkin started tugging her so urgently out of the clearing the blonde had to tell her wait as she collected her gear.

 

The girl quickly started leading her through the forest, for one so young she was confident on where she was going.

 

“Kom! Kom!” she called.

 

They really hadn’t travelled far at all, in fact if she’d kept walking Clarke would have soon come across it on her own. It was a village or what was left of it...not much was left standing. However the girl kept going past the centre of town out the back were the remains of a house stood.

 

She could smell it before they even got within a hundred feet of the house. Death. Her young charge also knew something was wrong stopping near what remained of a stone fence.

 

“Nomon…” She sniffled

 

_ “Your Nomon is up there?”  _ Clarke asked gently while gesturing to the remains of the house.

 

The girl nodded

 

_ “She sleeping ...she no get up”  _

 

Clarke winced but before she could formulate a response the girl was talking again.

 

_ “...an an Nontu went somewhere…’m trying to find him”  _  Apparently this was the breaking point for this tenacious little girl and she busted into tears.

 

Clarke stared helplessly at the crying child before she swiftly tugged the girl into her arms murmuring soothing jibberish into the birdsnest of hair.

 

“Hey hey shhh now you’re ok.. You’re ok. I’m here now. I’m here now” On and on in English and in trigedasleng rocking as she went till the child’s keening cry had ceased.

 

Pulling away she looked at the child who now looked over wrought and sleepy.

 

It was clear to Clarke that the child’s Mom was probably dead but the girl said her Dad had gone somewhere. If there was a chance he was still alive she needed to find him. Making up her mind she dug into her pack and retrieved her blanket and the bottle of water. Turning she made a bit of a nest with the blanket and guided the girl to it.

 

“Hey hey are you sleepy?”

 

The little brunette nodded her head scrubbing a fist in her eye with one hand, clutching at Clarke’s shirt with her other.

 

“C’mon on then you can rest right here I’ll tuck you in”

 

The kid just looked at her with large tired eyes. Not letting this phase her Clarke positioned the child so she was sheltered by the remains of the wall before bundling her up in the blanket. Once done she decide to add her jacket as well draping it across the girls shoulders. She would be cold without it but not freezing and the child was so small and scrawny she no doubt she was chilled to the bone. Plus the blonde was hoping that if the girl was warm and cosy that she would sleep so Clarke could go check out the house for clues on where Dad had gone uninterrupted. She wasn’t worried about leaving the girl unprotected she’d been out in the open for weeks now and aside from some truly unholy bugs the girl was the first living thing she’d seen. Besides, she would be in ear shot she tried to reassure herself.

 

“ Ok you just rest here a little while. I’m going to go look for your Nomon and Nontu ok”

 

The little girls drooping head jerked up, eyes wide and panicked as she scrambled to get out of Clarke’s nest.

 

“No!”

 

“Shhh SHhhhh no no you need to stay here.” Clarke rushed to put a reassuring hand on the kids shoulder.

 

_ “No! No! don’t go! Stay!”  _ The girl cried and squirmed.

 

_ ‘Shhh Shhh I promise I’ll come back I’ll come right back! I’m just going to the house to find your Nomon..You just stay right here and have a little nap ok? I know you’re tired”  _

 

The girl stilled but unleashed what Clarke could only describe as the world’s most epic pout. Huge brown eyes and a trembling bottom lip turned to study her for a beat before the little girl sniffed and burrowed back into the nest turning her back on Clarke clearly dismissing her.

 

Clarke tried not to feel snubbed...afterall it was the result she wanted. Yet the rejection from the only human contact she’d had in half a year stung even if it was from an overtired four year old.

 

Sighing she tugged her jacket back up around the girls shoulders making sure the tiny brunette was properly tucked in before she rose and headed toward the house.

 

Clarke approached the door cautiously, covering her mouth and nose with her scarf to cope with the smell. Bracing herself for a grizzly sight she entered... only to find the main living room empty. Looking around she could see a small kitchen and dining table on which sat a wooden toy, the blonde vowed to collect it for the girl before she left.

 

Continuing through one of the two doors she discovered a small bedroom in which it looked like all three occupants slept. It too was empty. Backing out without touching anything Clarke walked to the final door through which led to what appeared to a be storage area come pantry. It had a rear door leading out the back of the house and the cynic in Clarke instantly thought - back exit. However that didn’t hold her attention for long. 

 

What stole her attention was a hatch. A hatch leading underground. She stepped into the pantry and promptly gagged, the smell of death was overwhelming in the confined space. Clarke pull her scarf more firmly over her nose and attempted to mostly breathe through her mouth. Cautiously she approached the hatch. On closer inspection it became clear it was a bunker similar to the one Finn had found in those early days. Dropping down within she confirmed that sadly she'd found Madi’s Nomon. On one of two cots there was the decomposing body of a woman.

 

Clarke sighed and instantly regretted it making her clamp the scarf firmly over her nose and mouth before approaching the body. She frowned to herself, the body was in a state true, covered in what Clarke recognised as radiation sores and well on its way into decomposition. Yet despite this it occurred to Clarke that this wasn’t right, the Deathwave hit over five months ago. The body should be much further along than this if she perished with the initial blast. If Clarke had to guess she would say that the woman had been dead a week or less. Frowning she surveyed the bunker. Empty. It was empty. Empty boxes, sacks and hooks. With one last sad look at the woman she left the bunker become tomb.

 

Once out she exited the pantry through the back door that she’d noticed before. Taking a deep gulping breath of fresh air once outside. 

 

It had become clear to Clarke that the family had learned of the Deathwave and had taken refuge in the bunker. She grimaced to herself. Once inside they were safe from the initial wave...but they must have run out of supplies. With no choice they’d been forced to open the bunker in search of food. The girl had said her Nontu had left. Clarke hypothesized that the Dad had left in search of supplies while the Mom stayed with the girl. Unfortunately the radiation had still been too high for the red blooded mother killing her. Which meant if the father was also of red blood there was a high probability that he was dead as well.

 

The blonde sighed and scanned the rear of the house. There was not a lot more to see, behind the house there was what once upon a time Clarke supposed had been garden beds of some kind before the edge of the now dead forest resumed.

 

She was about to turn around and explore down the side of the house when something caught her eye, pausing she looked closer.

 

Footprints.

 

There was a track of fresh footprints leading right from where she was standing, which wasn’t altogether suprising as she was right near the back door. They were clearly heading off into the forest. Primfaya wiped away everything creating a clean slate meaning the father had left a pristine clear track for Clarke to follow.

 

Excited she hurried in the direction the footprints led.

 

They led further than she thought. She was beginning to think she should head back for the girl. Perhaps he was a nightblood after all and had managed to travel to the next village? She was just about to turn back when she noticed something strange. The footprints were weaving. She frowned and continued follow, the footprints were definately now staggering, then she noticed spatter by them. Blood spatter, he was throwing up blood. The blonde made an unhappy noise to herself, he was sick, he must be suffering from radiation poisoning.The pang of disappointment she felt was surprisingly acute. She hadn’t realised how much she’d begun to hope she was not alone. She sped up now continuing on with a pressing sense of urgency  _ Come on Come on Come on  _ She thought to herself. She was now really worried she’d left the girl too long but she’d come this far she couldn’t not find the father.

 

And then she found him. Like with the mother, she smelt him first. She’d just crested a small hill when she got a whiff of death on the wind. She paused and scanned the valley ahead and just like that there he was, collapsed a hundred yards away.

 

She ran to him but the smell told her she was already too late. Again she estimated the him to be dead about a week. Which explains the girls state although Clarke was impressed with the four year olds survival skills over a week on her own and she seemed no worse off for it.

 

“ Yu gonplei ste odon” she murmurs it’s the only thing left that she could do. She then knelt down and collected one of his braids thinking to take it back for the girl. Just as she was lifting the braid she noticed a necklace with a medallion on it around the man's neck and without a thought she collected it. Her Dad’s watch meant the world to her now that he wasn’t with her, so it only seemed like the right thing to do that the girl have something too.

 

With that thought she headed back the way she’d come, she made up her mind to swing by the house and collect both a braid from the mother and the toy. Though she felt anxious to get back to the girl she thought she’d have time for that at least. She’d organize funeral rights for them both tomorrow once she knew the girl was safe.

 

Despite the all the death of the day Clarke couldn’t help but feel a new sense of hope. Finally. FINALLY. She was not alone anymore.

**Author's Note:**

> P.S fun fact Steve and Kevin are my favourite minion/extra names. I find them unreasonably hilarious.


End file.
